I must say I prefer ice-skating in a rink much more than ice-skating on my way back to my house from the bus. I fell flat on my assorted sides four times on my way home from class yesterday, and I'm usually more coordinated than that.

I love skating, it's a great workout. Regarding the Pepsi rink in Olathe, I play hockey there every Sunday night. The place draws a lot of people, but not too many want to make the drive from Lawrence.

Loved ice skating as a kid. It was great fun, but I did break my one and only bone, my wrist doing it! We had a softball field flooded for the winter, and had a warming house for us. It was the "in" thing to do back then. There'd be at least 100 people there every night of the week. What a workout too.

FYI, the guy who ran the parks & rec gymnastics program in Robinson at KU is now in charge of the gymnastics program at Dance City. As of this past fall (2006), they had a girl's competitive team, but didn't yet have enough boys to put together a competitive team. They may have one by now. He's a great coach/teacher, very very good with the kids.

PS--back on topic, I love ice skating! The kids and I hit Crown Center at least once a year, and make a day of it w/ lunch and shopping. Be sure to get your parking ticket validated a second time at customer service if you stay more than 3 hours. The ice rink folks will validate for free parking for 3 hours, but Crown Center customer service will validate it for an additional 3 hours (up to 6hrs if you do the math) if you spend $25 or more while there. You have to show them your receipts.

Py, the increased popularity of youth hockey -- particularly high school hockey -- here over the last decade or so (my town's varsity hockey team is about ten years old) has fueled the construction of several area ice rinks. So ice skating has gotten pretty easy here for those who enjoy it. Lots of free skate times.

I must say, though, if I were to ice skate (I'm not built for normal ice skates -- I need the ice skate equivalent of roller skates, which I can't find for adults ... otherwise I'd probably be on the ice), my favorite place around here would be the University of Michigan's Yost Ice Arena. The newer arenas are all well and good, but it's so cool to skate in such a classic structure. It has a much better atmosphere than typical local rinks.

if god, buddha, whichever supreme being you believe in-had intended me to ice skate, i woulda been born with blades on my feet. same goes for roller skating. i am pretty much without coordination-and WITH a huge fear of hurting myself.

fishman, wow-your wrist bone is the only one you have?? that must make life difficult. ;)

STILL - Lawrence needs a roller/ice rink. What a fun way to spent a Saturday with your kids. Not only that Schools could form ice hockey teams and figure skate competitions. I think it would be a great outlet for the young people here in Lawrence. Kids needs more than just art and gymnastics to be entertained. Did you know that parks and rec do not have an advanced gymnastics class for boys? Most folks can't afford the Academy to help their child advance. With all the developers wanting to build and Lawrence wanting to move up a Roller/Ice Skating rink would be a great asset to this town.

sunshine, parks and rec does not have advanced gymnastics for girls, either. Try Dance City. They now offer competitive (or non-) gymnastics more affordably than the Academy. But you sound a bit pessimistic about art and gymnastics. Try one of the other billion activities out there. May I suggest racketball at the ONE free court at Holcolm rec center?

I enjoy ice skating...but being a child of the 70's, I much prefer roller skating. I like to dig out my bell bottoms, put a giant boom box on my shoulder, set up the disco ball, and roll...

As much as I'd like to see an indoor ice rink in Lawrence, statistics show that a city must have a population of at least 100,000 in order to make an ice rink cost effective. I don't think Lawrence fits into that category due to the fluctuating nature of our population during summer months, etc. Here's my proposal: Establish three outdoor rinks throughout the city (no walls necessary, just a one-foot deep man made pond), at least one of which will be fitted with two hockey goals made of chain-link fence. Keep them filled with water as needed (similar to the one in Hobbs Park) and let the public have at it. It's a lot cheaper than building a skating facility and allows families to have some outdoor fun in the winter. I grew up in a Cleveland suburb that used this approach and it was a hit.

Sarge, I was referring to publicly funded. I'm impressed that your city of 10,000 can support an arena, that's fantastic. Are you in KS? I can see it working in Canada where kids are practically born with skates on their feet.

I'm not very good at it, but I do like skating. When I was a little kid my mom used to flood our front yard and we'd have a good size rink and being in the cold Chicago suburbs it would last quite a while. The nieghbors would come over and enjoy as well and there'd always be lots of people over skating. When I was 5 we moved and our new yard had a slight slope to it so we couldn't do that anymore. Bummer.

The city used flood the train park, (Watson Park?) for a rink. Why don't they do that any more? It's cheaper than a facility, and skating just isn't and may never be as popular as it is up North and in the Northeast to hardly justify the expense of a skaing facility.

Lawrence had a skate rink, it wasn't used as much as needed to fund it obviously so they built a shopping complex where it used to be. We also used to have a putt-putt course, that's what Lawrence could really use again

Ascot: I figured you meant public. For cities not in the north, I'd agree with you; for cities in the north, it's not much of an issue, because one way or another, arenas get built where people want them. I would guess that if no private citizen sees the need to build a privately-funded ice arena, then a public arena will probably be a money-losing venture.

I live in Michigan (so not too far from Canada), and we do have an abundance of ice arenas, but most of them are fairly new. Most of them are private, too (going back to the last paragraph).

R_I: given the proximity of Ann Arbor and its brand-new YMCA, we have not brought a Y to town.

Gootsie: we did just build a relatively large (relative to the town) new library, but sadly, they did not include an ice rink. Also, they scuttled plans to sell coffee in the library; they didn't want to compete with surrounding businesses.

TOB: unfortunately, my town has decided that it likes housing developments much more than parks. Not that we don't have parks, but you know. They haven't committed to such an aggressive 1/4-mile plan. Oh well. But sometimes it seems like we have banks, drug stores and pizza places every 1/4 mile...

When I was a kid there were not a whole lot of indoor rinks and in B.C. no outdoor rinks as it rarely froze. But now, every little town has a rink as hockey is so big with the kids old and young.
But I did play broomball on the outdoor rink just down the street from me.
That reminds me, has anybody down there heard Quebecois David Francey singing, The Skating Rink?Really great song which depicts a small town rink as the gathering place on any winter evening.

The music from the skating rink
Drifts across the town
The stars of heaven high above
Forever looking down
I stand here looking upward
And I'm listening to the sound
Of the village in the lonely heart of winter.
The lights above the skating rink
Illuminate the scene
And on the snow the shadows show
Footsteps where we've been
And Danny's breath hangs motionless
Hovers like a dream
Above his head, in the lonely heart of winter.
The sky above the skating rink
The blackened weight of space
Falls endless on the frozen world
Upon the saving grace
Of the lights around the skating rink
Laughing in the face
Of the darkness at the lonely heart of winter.
Written at Ayer's Cliff, Quebec Feb 19, 2002 by David Francey

Ms_C, I was fortunate to grow up w/in walking distance of a skating rink. One of my (many) childhood dreams was to be the next Dorothy Hammil. But, alas, I had weak ankles! I did/do manage my way around a rink but never the "beauty on the ice" I dreamed of being...but then, I dreamed many things that did not come to fruition. (This is by no means a bad thing!) I wish we had a skating rink here but it would become just another place for a "rich kid sport." The rink in my hometown does have a bit of public skating times, but the rink makes it's money off of the hockey players and figure skaters. The money used to build the rink was donated by one citizen for that purpose. (Maybe he grew up skating???) My mother tells me that her father used to skate on the river. I think winters must have been colder here in days of yore (although judging by the last week you wouldn't know it), and people used to do more farm pond skating and such.

I like to skate around the issue that this town has gone crazy with an unsellable load of houses, unaffordable housing, a university that needs extra money, toll roads that increase prices to help out the schools, and above all a political sense of humor.

sunshine, level 3 at parks and rec for girls is neither sanctioned nor USAG. Level 3 is considered non-competitive in most gyms (and LPR does not offer competitive gym at any level). LPR does not offer anything above level 3 and also does not have equipment set-up to meet the needs of advanced gymnastics. They did have advanced gym when they were set up at Robinson, but alas, were booted out of the building under the guise of "we need more office space," which, BTW, they haven't even started to build yet and it has been a year and a half since then. So, I hear you. I have read the class schedule book and wonder how they can get away with "false advertising." It's a crock for the older kids. There were a lot of kids in that program. They were swept out the door with no place to go. LPR is still a good place to take your very young or non-advanced kids, though.